A trailer is an unpowered vehicle that may be used to carry goods or materials. To move the goods or materials, the trailer is attached to a powered vehicle, often by mating a coupler attached to the trailer to a tow hitch which is connected to the powered vehicle. Once attached, the trailer is towed behind the powered vehicle as the powered vehicle moves.
In order to have the capacity to carry large goods, materials, or pieces of equipment, some trailers may be very long. Adding a tongue and a coupler makes the trailer even longer and cumbersome to store. Therefore, it can be beneficial to have a way to reduce the length of a trailer to make storage of the trailer easier.
An additional danger of using a trailer to transport goods or materials is the threat of trailer theft. Without protection from theft, anybody who is interested in gaining possession of a trailer and its contents may easily disconnect the trailer from its owner's vehicle and hitch the trailer to their own vehicle and drive away. Some devices may attempt to deter theft of a trailer by providing a cover or providing some other method of preventing access to the trailer coupler. However, a thief could easily cut through this covering using a hacksaw or any other tool that is able to remove the covering. Therefore, it is desirable to have a mechanism that effectively prevents theft of a trailer.